A blog about Northeast energy issues, and in support of nuclear power.

Friday, January 1, 2010

About This Blog

Yes Vermont Yankee is a blog in support of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Vermont Yankee is due to be relicensed in 2012, but is fighting fierce opposition from well-organized groups. For example, some anti-Yankee people are currently walking from Brattleboro to Montpelier. They are gathering accolades and publicity along the way.

The walkers apparently don't care that shutting down Yankee will mean burning more fossil fuels. Their leaders say that we will only burn more fossil fuels for a "short time" if Yankee is shut down. They claim that renewables will take over in three to five years. Will Vermont really have hundreds of megawatts of renewable baseload power in five years? I don't think so, and no reputable analyst thinks so.

Still, the anti-Vermont Yankee walkers accept the idea that Vermont will burn expensive fossil fuels for electricity for "three to five years" -- or maybe ten years, or maybe forever. They apparently don't concern themselves with global warming or pollution from fossil-fired plants. They just want to shut down Yankee, and they are very organized.

The Vermont Yankee power plant has been an asset to Vermont by providing safe, clean, reliable, inexpensive power. It has provided good jobs, charitable donations, and taxes. Yankee's low-cost electricity encourages business and employment in Vermont. Vermont Yankee has been, and can remain, a boon to the state and the region.

It is time that Vermont Yankee supporters become organized. This new blog can be a place where we can trade information. I hope it will become a rallying point for plant supporters.

You might wonder who is writing this blog. Do I work for Vermont Yankee? No. I am Meredith Angwin, a physical chemist. I have worked most of my life for the power industry. My background includes fossil fuels (patents in NOx control), risk management for natural gas pipelines, economic and corrosion assessments for geothermal energy, and corrosion control in nuclear power plants. I currently earn my living as a writer. Though I accept contracts from electric utilities and equipment suppliers (among other companies), this blog is not part of any paid work. It is completely my own, and I am responsible for its contents.

One final word. There are many excellent pro-nuclear blogs, and one of my friends asked why I wanted to start another one. However, most other blogs tend to cover the whole world, including nuclear construction in China, the latest word from Congress, and so forth. I live in Vermont, and I have started this blog specifically to concentrate on Vermont Yankee issues.

9 comments:

Meredith - Dan might have followed you first, but it looks like I can claim the first comment on your new blog.

Welcome to the loose association of independently minded - often aggressively so - pro-nuclear bloggers. I am looking forward to reading about the pot lucks along the route of the anti-Yankee marchers.

Great idea. It will be hard to get as much "material" as all of the anti-VY sites. Have you noticed that none of theirs are properly named? Citizen's Action Network, Vermont Public Interest Research Group... but their only purpose appears to be spreading misinformation about VY and getting it shut down. I bet that even if we got an overwhelming number of Vermonters to support VY they wouldn't change their website a bit.

Ian, you are so correct. So many sources of wrong information! I welcome input on what I might post. Dedicated groups spread misinformation, and there has not been much activity in countering them. That is why I am doing this.

Meredith - You already have an excellent blogroll going. I have another recommendation to support your need for accurate information that is accessible to ordinary voters. That is BraveNewClimate.com, the public website of Australian climate scientist Prof. Barry Brook (Adelaide University). Like me, Dr. Brook used to be a non-supporter of expanded nuclear generation. After much careful research he has concluded that nuclear power is absolutely essential to a low carbon future.

Like you, Barry is dedicating personal time to effective public communications — to help voters and politicians learn that "renewables" cannot achieve the low carbon energy future we need. But in contrast we have a chance of achieving our carbon concentration goals if we focus upon rapid deployment of Gen 3+ and Gen 4 technology.

Wombat Whiskers and SeekerBlog. Thank you for the link to Brave New Climate! I have added it to my blog list.

I probably won't add more climate websites to my blog list, though. As I said in my first post, I am trying for a fairly narrow focus in support of Vermont Yankee. On the other hand, I am new at this blogging thing, so I may well expand my list later.

The Brave New Climate site has a tab on Sustainable Nuclear. I couldn't resist that one!